Matte Painting 101: Basic Destruction Techniques

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Matte painting is a technique that filmmakers use to create backgrounds for scenes that can’t or don’t exist in real life. In the early days, matte paintings were actually painted onto glass. Today, modern filmmakers use digital applications such as Photoshop to produce the backdrops that they need. We… read more

5 Strategies for Maximizing Your Content’s Social Reach

Frank Marquardt is director of content strategy at The Barbarian Group, a digital services and creation company. Find him on Twitter @tralition.

What once existed as a webpage now finds expression as an update on Facebook, a bit.ly link, a tweet, an email link or a reblog on… read more

33 Vibrant Photos of Underwater Creatures

Underwater photographers can produce some spectacular images. If you have the gear, it’s definitely worth giving it a go and while the conditions require a little getting used to, it can be a hell of the lot of fun. In the meantime check out these great results that… read more

3 Familiar Photo Troubles – And What To Do to Overcome Them

There are a lot of ways to ruin a photograph, but when you take enough photos you will come to be very familiar with a few problems that seem to recur. These common problems can be a real pain, but luckily a lot of them have quite straight… read more

Create An Elegant Vehicles Web Layout With Light Effects

Create An Elegant Vehicles Web Layout With Light Effects

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Daily Inspiration #832

This post is part of our daily series of posts showing the most inspiring images selected by some of the Abduzeedo’s writers and users. If you want to participate and share your graphic design inspiration, just send us, via email, the image with the link from where you found it,… read more

Create a Vector Fighter Jet Using Adobe Illustrator – Vector Premium Tutorial

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Today, we have another Vector Premium tutorial, which is available exclusively for Premium members. If you want to learn how to create a fighter jet using 3d modeling techniques, then we have an awesome tutorial for you. Learn how to create detailed object based vector illustrations in Adobe Illustrator…. read more

100+ Free High Resolution Photoshop Brush Sets

Designers all over the world are on a constant search to find useful Photoshop brushes. This is because they know having a good collection of Photoshop brushes can save them in their time of need. Although there are countless brush sets are available for Adobe Photoshop that make finding Brush… read more

Building Credibility with Responsive Website Design

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Website traffic is the key component to building any strong community. As web designers we often forget about the user experience and focus on pretty graphics and pixel icons. However without users our websites would turn into bits of redundant data held on servers across the… read more

Shanghai by Night

Shanghai is a photographer’s paradise and a cityscaper’s dream. One of those cities that straddles the divide of traditional to futuristic, if you’re looking to get some Blade Runner type shots, then this is probably the place to do it. Enjoy this collection that has done exactly that.

photo… read more

Fresh Tutorials Tuesday #20

Fresh Tutorials Tuesday #20

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Let’s Change the Background, Shall We?

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Are you new to Photoshop? Have you been trying to teach yourself the basics of Photoshop but have found the amount of educational material available on the net a bit overwhelming? As the world’s #1 Photoshop site, we’ve published a lot of tutorials. So many, in fact, that we… read more

PHOTO LOCATION GUIDE: Bare Island, Sydney

This is the first in a new section of Light Stalking dedicated to critiquing our favourite places to shoot. While it’s easy enough to find shooting guides for big cities or whole countries, this new section of Light Stalking is where you will find those secret spots that… read more

Speeding Up WordPress

Whether you’re using WordPress as a CMS, a blog or somewhere between the two, as a portfolio site, making sure your site runs quickly is absolutely paramount in this day and age. This article and screencast combo takes you through how to use a variety of tips, tricks and … read more

CSS Form Templates, Tools & Services

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CSS has hugely improved forms. Where once you had very rudimentary forms that looked plain and un-styled, CSS lets you style your form however you want and create rich and robust forms. Even a simple contact form can look slick and increase readability and user-friendliness –… read more

50 (More) Daunting Photos of Storms

Photographs of storms are always a popular topic here on Light Stalking and we have even covered how to shoot them. The power and visual drama of a storm is almost unmatched in landscape photography and to be perfectly honest, we never really get sick of looking at… read more

Can You Really Make Zoo Photos Look Like Wildlife Shots?

Animal photographs are inherent crowd-pleasers that elicit emotional responses.  Of course, not everyone can hop on a plane to head deep into a rainforest, a savannah or a jungle to capture exotic creatures.  What you can do though, is head to a zoo.  While it’s inherently not a… read more

Ultimate Guide of Web Typography Tutorials, Tips and Best Practices

Web typography is nothing but implementing typography on web page. This is very important in order to identify oneself in the designing world. It is equally important that understanding and implementing typography successfully on your web page. This is an evolution in web designing to stand apart from all other… read more

Weekly Design News – Resources, Tutorials and Freebies (N.87)

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This is our weekly column were we share our favorites design related articles, resources and resources all from the previous week.

If you would like to be kept up to date with loads of fresh design news and resources, you can follow us on Twitter, on Facebook,… read more

Create a Grid Based Web Design in HTML5 & CSS3

Create a Grid Based Web Design in HTML5 & CSS3

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How To Create a Sleek Grid Based Website Design

How To Create a Sleek Grid Based Website Design

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Useful CSS3 Tutorials From 2011

Since the come out of CSS3 the life of developers become easy. In this post we have collected some useful and freash CSS3 tutorials for developers and designer to increase there skills. read more

Incredible Photos of Ancient and Medieval Underground Cisterns

In another example of when having a great subject can really help in getting great photographs, we’re sure you will agree that this collection is pretty impressive. These cisterns are from various prominent places in the ancient and medieval world – predominantly Istanbul, but the collection also includes… read more

30 Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Tips and Tutorials

30 Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Tips and Tutorials

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30 Useful and Cutting Edge CSS3 Text Effect and Web Typography Tutorials

30 Useful and Cutting Edge CSS3 Text Effect and Web Typography Tutorials

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How to Levitate in Your Photos!

Who says people can’t fly?

We’ve all done it at one time or another – gazed into the sky wondering what it’d be like to soar like an eagle, watching everything get smaller and smaller below you. Or maybe you dream of what it’d be like to float like… read more

70 Excellent Photoshop 3D Tutorials

70 Excellent Photoshop 3D Tutorials

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The 25 coolest tutorials to learn Cinema 4D

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I LOVE Cinema 4D. Easy and powerful. Enjoy these great tutorials ;)

How to Make A Ribbon Wall Graphic in Cinema 4D

Transformers Titles in Cinema 4D

SLOW MoDynamics

How To Make A Metal Logo Type in Cinema 4D and Photoshop

How To Make The Cherry 7up Look With Cinema… read more

40+ Upcoming Social Media & Tech Events

Every week, Mashable puts together a calendar of upcoming social media and web events, parties and conferences.

Here are some tips on how to network, share your information and promote your event using social media:

The Future of Event Planning and Social MediaHOW TO: Plan and Promote Events with… read more

Planet Photoshop: Building A Composite

Corey Barker is a Photoshop instructor and graphic designer who maintains a blog at PlanetPhotoshop.com. Visit his site for more tutorials and tips.

Corey shows you how to combine two images into an interesting composite.

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25+ Awesome Photoshop & Illustrator Tutorials to fresh start the week

25+ Awesome Photoshop & Illustrator Tutorials to fresh start the week

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35 Stunning Photo Manipulation Photoshop Tutorials – Part 2

35 Stunning Photo Manipulation Photoshop Tutorials – Part 2

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34 Awesome Poster Designs

In this post we have put together some awesome poster designs for your inspiration. If you like these poster designs you might also want to check out some of our previous posts below. Enjoy!

33 Poster Design Tutorials

Design Inspiration: Poster Design Showcase

Inject Knowledge

Eagle In Your Mind

Time Is Ticking

Global Warming<br… read more

Cool and Useful jQuery Image and Content Sliders and Slideshows

Looking for some cool new (and free) jQuery slider plug-ins and scripts? Then here is the perfect round-up created just for you. Here, we have collected the best of the freshest jQuery plug-ins for creating amazing image and content sliders. Because all of these plug-ins come with different functionality, this… read more

Vintage 3D Typography in Photoshop with Repoussé

Sunday is the day to play with Photoshop and try some new ideas. As usual I went through some books and Web sites to find some inspiration. I am still addicted to the Handy Book of Artistic Printing, it’s a must have book for some old style print references. I… read more

31 Bright and Colourful Photos of Tulips

Inspired by our community’s flower of the day challenge on the Light Stalking forums, we decided to get together a collection of a specific type of flower to show what others are doing. These photos of Tulips are here to motivate and inspire!

photo © 2009 Tambako The… read more

The Art of Travel Portraiture: 10 Tips to Get You Better Shots

Capturing travel portraits is one of the hardest assignments you can undertake as a photographer. Traveling to a new place where you may not be that familiar with the customs, there is no way you can predict who you’ll meet, and even less chance of developing some definite… read more

Daily Inspiration #828

This post is part of our daily series of posts showing the most inspiring images selected by some of the Abduzeedo’s writers and users. If you want to participate and share your graphic design inspiration, just send us, via email, the image with the link from where you found it,… read more

Design a Beautiful “Coming Soon” Page: 37 Templates & Tutorials

Design a Beautiful “Coming Soon” Page: 37 Templates & Tutorials

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Our favorite tweets of the week May 16-May 22, 2011

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Linkswitch #69, Bookmarklets, Time Management, Brand Ambassadors

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The secret power of bookmarklets

Bookmarklets are special links that users can add to their browser’s favorites.

These special links include code (i.e. not just a target URL), and they trigger various kinds of useful functionality, allowing you to modify and extend any web page.

15 Photoshop Tutorials for… read more

32 Creative (and Brave) Closeups of Wasps

While we’re not sure of the wisdom of getting up close and personal with these little creatures, it’s hard to deny that they can make a fantastic subject for a photograph. Some of these remind us quite a lot of the remarkable macro work of Thomas Shahan which… read more

Wallpaper of the Week #152 by Genaro DeSia Coppola

The wallpaper of this week is an image created by Genaro DeSia Coppola, an amazing and super talented illustrator from Barcelona, Venezuela. Genaro has this incredible 80′s style. You will be able to see more of Genaro’s work in the Abduzeedo Inspiration Guide for Designers as well.

For more information… read more

20 Excellent Tutorials For Creating Vector Illustrations

20 Excellent Tutorials For Creating Vector Illustrations

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20 Best Photoshop Tutorials For Photo Editing

20 Best Photoshop Tutorials For Photo Editing

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55 Detailed Cartoon Character Design Tutorials

55 Detailed Cartoon Character Design Tutorials

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40 Best Ajax Tutorials

40 Best Ajax Tutorials

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How to Create a Starburst Effect in Photographs

When shooting into the sun or other light sources, you may notice that some of your images have a unique quality to the light – this is known as a “starburst” effect. This can create a very strong focal point and add an entirely new dimension of interest… read more

30 Excellent Photoshop Drawing Tutorials

30 Excellent Photoshop Drawing Tutorials

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50 Really Useful Photoshop Tutorials For Photo Effects

50 Really Useful Photoshop Tutorials For Photo Effects

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Unleashing HTML5: Articles, Guides, Resources, Tutorials, and Cheat Sheets

Unleashing HTML5: Articles, Guides, Resources, Tutorials, and Cheat Sheets

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20+ Amazing CSS3 Text Effect Tutorials and Experiments

20+ Amazing CSS3 Text Effect Tutorials and Experiments

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Daily Inspiration #827

This post is part of our daily series of posts showing the most inspiring images selected by some of the Abduzeedo’s writers and users. If you want to participate and share your graphic design inspiration, just send us, via email, the image with the link from where you found it,… read more

60 Stunning Photoshop Text Effect Tutorials

60 Stunning Photoshop Text Effect Tutorials

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35 Educational & Latest PHP Tutorials With Great information

35 Educational & Latest PHP Tutorials With Great information

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The Stunning Ruined Abbeys of England: A Photo Collection

As a visitor to England, the first time you stumble across one of these ruined cathedrals or abbeys, the sheer size and grandeur is staggering. It’s also a very obvious photo opportunity! This photo collection can show you a little of what to expect as well as what… read more

What’s your time of day? (Part 5) Shooting in The Dark

We’ve been up since 4am to catch the first light, we’ve had second light among the folaige, been out and about in the midday Sun and spent a pensive and relective moment with the last light of the day.

Shooting After Dark

Now where do you go when the last light drains from… read more

Daily Inspiration #826

This post is part of our daily series of posts showing the most inspiring images selected by some of the Abduzeedo’s writers and users. If you want to participate and share your graphic design inspiration, just send us, via email, the image with the link from where you found it,… read more

Lightroom Killer Tip – Trick to Borderless Printing

The following video is from Matt Kloskowski’s blog, LightroomKillertips.com, a place to get the coolest Adobe Lightroom tutorials, tips, time-saving shortcuts, photographic inspiration, and undocumented tricks. For more Lightroom videos, visit LRKT or subscribe to the podcast feed by clicking here.

From LRKT blog:
Laying out your print is probably… read more

Creating with Vector Blends In-Depth Using Illustrator – Vector Premium Tutorial

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Today, we have another Vector Premium tutorial, which is available exclusively for Premium members. Have you considered the possibilities of the Blend options in Adobe Illustrator? Today I’m going to show you ways to get creative with Blends by illustrating a whole portrait using primarily Blends!

This Premium Tutorial is… read more

47 Surprisingly Striking Photos of Wheat

When you think of wheat fields, you don’t necessarily think of great photographic opportunities. In fact, you might be forgiven for thinking that the subject is a little dull. But proving the adage that the best photographs are a factor of the skill of the photographer and not… read more

What’s your time of day? (Part 4) Shooting at Last Light

This is a series by photographer, Tom Dinning. You can read the first three parts of this series here: Shooting at First Light, Shooting at Second Light, Shooting at Midday.

This is a collection of photographs taken over the years during that time of the day (between 4pm and… read more

15 jQuery Sliding Tutorials

15 jQuery Sliding Tutorials

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Amazing Photo Manipulation Tutorials

Amazing Photo Manipulation Tutorials

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Selecting Hair is Easy – Basix

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Are you new to Photoshop? Have you been trying to teach yourself the basics of Photoshop but have found the amount of educational material available on the net a bit overwhelming? As the world’s #1 Photoshop site, we’ve published a lot of tutorials. So many, in fact, that we… read more

Graphical Design with OSS

Many designers don’t use graphical Open Source Software. This is not a coincidence: usually they don’t understand it, don’t like or even despise it. Since using the free software requires more time and technical knowledge — it seems easier to pay for a working package from a well-known vendor.<br… read more

A Killer Collection of Adobe LightRoom Tutorials

Adobe LightRoom remains one of the most popular pieces of post-production software for photographers and for Light Stalking readers. Luckily, there are a lot of clever and generous people around the internet who have taken the time to produce some great tutorials on using it recently. So why… read more

100 Best Illustrator Tutorials To Make You A Better Designer

100 Best Illustrator Tutorials To Make You A Better Designer

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5 Fresh and helpful Photoshop Tutorials

5 Fresh and helpful Photoshop Tutorials

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TUTORIAL: What’s your time of day? (Part 3) The Midday Sun

Noel Coward wrote that only mad dogs and Englishmen would dare go out in the midday Sun. Fortunately for us, Noel didn’t include photographers in those that shouldn’t.

Now that we have been up since 4am for the First Light at the beach and spent a pleasant morning… read more

15 fresh Photoshop & Illustrator Tutorials to kick-off this week

15 fresh Photoshop & Illustrator Tutorials to kick-off this week

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40+ Surreal and Fantasy Scenes Photoshop Tutorials

40+ Surreal and Fantasy Scenes Photoshop Tutorials

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Daily Inspiration #824

This post is part of our daily series of posts showing the most inspiring images selected by some of the Abduzeedo’s writers and users. If you want to participate and share your graphic design inspiration, just send us, via email, the image with the link from where you found it,… read more

Ultimate Designer Toolkit (Over 60,000 Premium Design Items) Giveaway

Ultimate Designer Toolkit is running a contest, where 3 winners will get the free subscription of Ultimate Designer Toolkit with over 60,000 premium design items (worth $99 each subscription). Well, you guys know what they are offering? Lets say it once again for n00bs.

Ultimate Designer Toolkit is… read more

Inspirational Tutorials to Sharpen Your Artistic Skills from Vectortuts+

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If you’ve been looking for some ways to freshen up your vector skills with an artistic twist, then we have a great selection of tutorials for you! We have handpicked a selection of tutorials from the Vectortuts+ catalog with a focus on artistic output and techniques. If you’ve ever… read more

Just for Fun: 40 River Sunsets

Almost any collection we put together that was photographed during the golden hour continues to do well here on Light Stalking. This collection of eye candy will hopefully help with the daily inspiration too. Enjoy these river shots taken at sunset that were mostly done using techniques that… read more

15 Photoshop Tutorials for Designing Advertisements

15 Photoshop Tutorials for Designing Advertisements

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TUTORIAL: What’s your time of day? (Part 2) Shooting at Second Light

This is a guest post by Tom Dinning who, besides being a professional photographer, teacher and mini-celebrity in the Light Stalking community, has also shared some very popular tutorials in the forums and in other posts.

If you have recovered from my recent post on shooting at first light,… read more

Facebook Launches Non-Profit Resource Center

Facebook is launching a resource center to help non-profits use the social network. The site will include educational materials, tutorials and a downloadable non-profit guide geared toward raising awareness and funds for causes specifically through the social network.

A “Get Started” section offers quick tips on how to… read more

How To Build a Sliding Feature Slideshow with jQuery

How To Build a Sliding Feature Slideshow with jQuery

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How To Create a Grumpy Troll Character in Illustrator

How To Create a Grumpy Troll Character in Illustrator

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Daily Inspiration #823

This post is part of our daily series of posts showing the most inspiring images selected by some of the Abduzeedo’s writers and users. If you want to participate and share your graphic design inspiration, just send us, via email, the image with the link from where you found it,… read more

50+ Upcoming Social Media & Tech Events

Every week, Mashable puts together a calendar of upcoming social media and web events, parties and conferences.

Here are some tips on how to network, share your information and promote your event using social media:

The Future of Event Planning and Social MediaHOW TO: Plan and Promote Events with… read more

Photoshop 101: How I do it – Unique Texture without using Brushes

I give away a LOT of stuff here on BittBox, mainly textures and brushes. The truth is, many of the textures are manufactured using recycled images I already have hanging around on my hard drive. I want to share one of my favorite ways to quickly add a little extra… read more

50 Killer (Photoshop And Others) Tutorials For Graphic Designers

Tutorials are the best source for the designers when they need to design a project that has been really putting them off. With the help of tutorials, one can learn the new skills and can also polish the skills he already possesses. This assortment of some killer Adobe Photoshop and… read more

Web Designers, Get Out There and Make Something!

When people ask me what I do, I tell them I make websites. They usually smile and nod and then ask whom I might make these sites for. I’ll ramble off a random list of clients I perceive to be most impressive. They, again, smile and nod. The conversation moves… read more

31 Must Try Photoshop Tutorials in Creating Photorealistic Objects

To see is to believe.

The images below are not real and we, ourselves, would have readily dismissed the possibility that these images are digital illustrations had they not been tutorialized, painstakingly step-by-step. If you’re just learning Photoshop or you’re just willing to go another mile to learn others’ techniques,… read more

Create an Adorable Puppy with Negative Space and the Paintbrush Tool

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Today I’m going to show you how to create a quick illustration of a puppy using negative space and the ever so versatile Paintbrush Tool (B). I recently became the proud parent of a Blenheim colored Cavalier King Charles Spaniel puppy (named Shelley!) and couldn’t help creating a quick… read more

20 Inspirational and Free Downloadable Photography Magazines

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Inspiration is important for web and visual designers. It’s what gives you new ideas, shapes and influences your style, and energizes and increases your passion for visual art. And visual art that’s of a different medium from yours can be an even greater inspiration—like photography—since you’re… read more

Artistic Printing Inspiration in Illustrator and Photoshop

This morning I was tidying up my apartment then I decided to organize my books, I didn’t bring many books to San Francisco, only the ones I really like, and among them there is The Handy Book of Artistic Printing: Collection of Letterpress Examples with Specimens of Type, Ornament, Corner… read more

27 Beautiful and Calming Rock Pool Photos

Rock pools can be a stunning subject for outdoor photographers. As you can see from the following collection, composing a great shot and taking advantage of the golden hour can really create inspirational shots. So enjoy this collection and may it inspire you to get out and shoot!

photo… read more

Daily Inspiration #822

This post is part of our daily series of posts showing the most inspiring images selected by some of the Abduzeedo’s writers and users. If you want to participate and share your graphic design inspiration, just send us, via email, the image with the link from where you found it,… read more

TUTORIAL: What’s Your Time of Day (Part 1)- Shooting at First Light

This is a guest post by Tom Dinning who, besides being a professional photographer, teacher and mini-celebrity in the Light Stalking community, has also shared some very popular tutorials in the forums and in other posts.

Recently I had a browse through my files to see if there was… read more

65 Intriguing CINEMA 4D Tutorials for Designers

65 Intriguing CINEMA 4D Tutorials for Designers

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Our favorite tweets of the week May 9-May 15, 2011

Source

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35 Useful jQuery Tutorials From 2011

Web developer created some great jQuery tutorials and today we just want list some of the 2011 tutorials which really stand out from the tradition javascript effect tutorials. read more

Wallpaper of the Week #151 by François Leroy

The wallpaper of this week is an image created by François Leroy, a graphic designer and illustrator from Paris, France. He studied traditional art in school in Paris. At the same time he started to be interested by digital art and it became a real passion to him.

I define… read more

Best of the Week #171

It’s time for our best news of this week. We have a lot of graphic and web design, a bit of architecture, ads, tech news, awesome reads and other crazy stuff! So take a look at the links we’ve selected for your inspiration and to keep you updated about what’s… read more

Tutorial: Design a Stunning Sneaker Advert

Tutorial: Design a Stunning Sneaker Advert

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Logo Tutorials: Popular Corporate Identity Designs

Logo Tutorials: Popular Corporate Identity Designs

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